Monday, May 5, 2014

My Struggle (Mein Kampf )

In the process of doing some research on Hitler , I also ,but naturally, read up on his
autobiography. On going ( read flipping) through the
book it seemed to me that Mein Kampf is more of an exposition and a justification of Hitler's ideology
and political views and less of an autobiography. But there were two things
which I found striking : firstly, the title ,which translates to 'My Struggle'
,and secondly , an uncanny similarity between Hitler's thoughts and the thought
process of our politicians.

The best thing about the book , for me, is the title. I am
sure if any of us was asked to pen our
thoughts for a book titled 'My Struggle' we would have no problem/s in doing
so. We would never experience logjams such as 'writers block' or paucity
of material . This is not to say that life itself is a struggle -on the
contrary life is joyous; truly a gift to be savored .It is when we come
across some others ( please note the 'some' as opposed to 'all' ) with
whom we do not share the same wavelength, or ,to put it more bluntly, are
on diagonally opposite wavelengths, that the struggle begins. The struggle of
being polite, keeping up appearances, not being rude (because one believes
that life is a karmic cycle) etc . Of course ,there are other
struggles also -struggle for freedom ( Gandhi) ;for independence ( most Asian
women ); against corruption ;against cancer ...the list is endless and that is
why I believe that 'Mein Kampf' is a universally applicable title.

Now, coming to the' similarities' between you know who and
whom. Consider these Hitlerisms :

"If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the
crudest and most stupid things."
When I look at some of the gems spoken by our politicos it is hard to
ignore the fact that either they are very naive or they believe the junta is
and that is why they spout the absurdities that they do.

Another one - "Life never forgives weaknesses."

Is this why our honorable and' honest 'P.M is perpetually
silent? He does not want to acknowledge any weakness for the fear of not being
forgiven?

He doesn't know that the present has already judged him -as will history
.And that the judgment is not very
forgiving !!

Thanks Anju, I have always been wanting to read the book, a good motivation for me to start. As much as I am against the philosophies of Hitler, I have always wondered how strong he was internally - To make a part of the world believe in the ideology of one person is a magnitude of leadership, might be a wrong notion but still one hell of a strong character.

Its funny how the similarities work wooing the masses, keeping appearances, I guess we all do it in our own small ways too. Something I really liked about is that Public rarely forgives weakness.. Quite simply a very powerful statement on its own.

Thank you for the spurt of motivation, I think I should get to the book soon :)

Yes, Vinay, we all have our weaknesses, beliefs and foibles- just that Hitler managed to exterminate almost an entire race because of his belief system.I think Hitler will always fascinate for generations to come!

About Me

I am a firm believer in Krishna's philosophy of Karma- and as a natural corollary to this belief have worked and lived so as to give grief to as few people as possible while enjoying my life , my work and myself.